What would cause a car to lose all its oil and water?

11 year old petrol zafira. Lost all its oil and water out of the exhaust as smoke and steam in maybe a minute or two. Allegedly did not overheat. No sign of mayo inside the filler cap. Apparently wasn’t losing power and didn’t cut out. No puddles under the car or any signs of leaking.

Any ideas?

It has recently had a new sump and catalytic convertor on it.

I am not a mechanic but a sudden mixing of oil and water in the block from the cooling pipes failing and voiding the rad contents in there?

Is engine now seized / shafted?

Not overheating on the dial could that be because there’s no water suddenly around the sensor although I guess the area round it would get hot pretty quick.

nope – engine still runs and revs.

recovery guy said that he couldnt find a reason. didn’t think it was head gasket.

Head gasket was exactly my first thought. Second thought is, if there’s no oil or water in it, why is anyone running and revving it? #brinkofdisaster

If this is treated to you by the other half I would suspect the head gasket is blown in such a way it sucked it all out and blew it out the exhaust really rapidly so not giving the two time to mix and show in the header tank or oil filler cap.

Dont keep running and **** revving it!!!!

Second thought is, if there’s no oil or water in it, why is anyone running and revving it

That’s your assumption right there. I aint that daft.

Suggsey – that is my thought.

I have filled it up with oil and water and the engine is running fine. However, I dont trust it to go anywhere until i find the problem.

Maybe a cracked block? Did it lose power at the same time?

no loss of power apparently.

1. your car is upside down
2. bullet holes in the engine block, from playing real life GTA.

To loose it out the exhaust would be a warped head, split block or head gasket. If the sensor for the temperature is dry it wont record the actual water temp.

Could be a few things, best thing to do is take into a garage you trust and get them to do a pressure test on the engine. Shouldn’t cost to much to get done.

Were you certain that the sump and cooling system were both full? 5 litres of oil (approx). plus a full block of water is a lot to lose and would take more than a minute or two.

If it’s now holding oil and water levels and it’s not billowing smoke at operating temperature then I’d question a catastrophic failure.

With the engine warm and running, put your hand over the exhaust. Does your hand get wet/oily?

Rich.

And no external signs of coolant in engine bay or under tray? Was going to suggest split header tank or similar then with no coolant cooked all the oil hence the smoke out the exhaust. I can’t see both liquids all going at the same time without some sort of failure that’s going to bugger your engine if you try and recreate it. Have you had each spark plug out to see which ones are fouled and wet?

I’d guess a head gasket or more likely a cracked head.

And as i said on facebook. Its an 11year old petrol zafira thats just shit its self.

Its worth the sum total of the new sump and cat you stuck on …

Cut yer losses.

That’s your assumption right there. I aint that daft.

I have filled it up with oil and water and the engine is running fine. However, I dont trust it to go anywhere until i find the problem.
Hmm, is I missing something? Is it holding oil and water ok now, then?

Abit of cunning detective work…

Recent new sump. What lives in sumps?

I was loosing coolant on an engine- hose not connected properly, split or HG leak.

Now she tells me that it was stalling a few times and that the temperature went upto around 110….

My wife is an arse and I cant wait to divorce her…

My own investigations show this:

Engine is running as it used to, but it has developed a new high pitched whine which is fairly quiet.

There is not sign of a leak anywhere or any description, nor any hoses off or leaking.

There nothing abnormal coming out of the exhaust.

There is no sign of oil in the water or water in the oil.

I can see no cracks in the engine block.

Haven’t had the spark plugs out.

What’s the end of the tail-pipe look like? Oily? Could have just over-heated and the oil wasn’t at the right level to begin with. Burning a few litres of oil in couples of minutes will make a right mess and the stink will hang around.

[edit] doh. I just read your latest msg. Hmm, something seems off. The whine was probably there before, you find noises when you go hunting for them.

Could a damaged oil pick up pipe cause this kind of thing?

Heads warped,blocks cracked(internally NOT externally)or internal water way has corroded into a oil gallery the engine is shagged even if it’s running at the mo it will stop working(seized)one way or another etier that or your not giving us the full story cause those are the only way an engine can lose all it’s oil or water without a cracked sump or expansion tank 🙁

Are you 100% sure it was filled up after the sump and cat was changed?
Maybe it overheated as it was almost dry and then what was left shot out of somewhere.

We had a works astra which was regulary losing its oil and water. Went on for about a year. in the end, we put a new engine in, as the Vauxhall garage had no idea, where the water and oil went. If its as old as it is, then run it until it dies as its worth nowt.

It was filled up – 100% sure.

Heaven knows I’d hate to tread on the internet landmine of assumption for a second time in one single evening, but for the sake of clarity, are we saying it was full of oil and water, it had one event that voided all the oil and water out of the exhaust, and now it’s holding oil and water again?

That is exactly what we’re saying. I’ve not taken it on a long run, just let it idle for an hour and it’s holding oil and water…

Wow – that is as odd as the proverbial cod. Whoever mentioned about getting it pressure tested, that’s what I’d be thinking, from my mechanically inept point of view. If it don’t leak… Well, I don’t really know where that leaves you. Almost be better off if it did, at least you’d have an idea where the problem is!

how many miles since the the sump was changed im guessing. wasnt filled with oil which may have caused it to overheat maybe

That’s what’s got me stumped. I’m usually pretty good mechanically, having worked on lots of cars for lots of years, but this one has me stumped.

About three hundred miles since the sump was changed and i checked the oil regularly and the day before and it was upto the maximum.

Weren’t driving anywhere near the Bermuda triangle were you…

Anyone used Steelseal? I might just fire a bottle of that into it and hope for the best.

Trail Rat is probably right.

Just how much smoke and steam? 10 litres of fluid in a minute would be like a volcano. Your car physically doesn’t have the capacity to burn that much fluid that fast either. (the amount of fluid it takes to hydrolock an engine is really pretty small, too, a dodgy injector can do it… So working on the theoretical, I reckon if it happened at all it had to happen after the combustion end, or in some way that meant it never got that far, I reckon it’s fundamentally impossible that it burned it on your timescale.

As an additional investigative thing, you could break the exhaust at its lowest point- flexi probably- and see if there’s anything hiding in there. I doubt it mind but you can store a lot of liquid in an exhaust, I poured gallons of river out of mine.

I’ve no real suggestions. It’s possibly got THE DEMONS. See if it floats.

Head gasket appears to be the winner. Coolant is full of oil now and oil is full of coolant. Combo of oil smoke, steam and drips of water out the exhaust.

probably not got a clue.. but if the car has lost all water and then carried on running , then the engine block would get very very hot and then would the oil then burn/vanish too as it’s the only thing that can offer any cooling? ie all the heat is going to discharge into the oil if the components do not fail. As stated I do not know. Thought HG at first.

50p your new cats now fcked

50p your new cats now fcked

Well it has a year to clean itself out then doesnt it. 😀

haha – typical though isnt it …. you fix the car get a 12 month ticket , give it to the wife…and she kills it terminally within a fortnight…

happened to me with the jeep in january 🙁